Really, a teenager!?!

13 years ago tonight, I laid on our couch, in our first sweet home, watching the movie Meet Joe Black. I wondered if that baby growing inside me was ever going to be ready to come out. I was officially 6 days overdue...41 weeks pregnant with our first born son. It was a pretty uneventful pregnancy, until my actual due date of October 18. I was still teaching 5th grade at Braun Station on that very day, making lots of people nervous!!! I thought my water broke and so I finally left school and headed to the OB. False alarm... But my blood pressure was high. No signs of any labor yet. Nothing, nada, zilch, goose egg! So he sent me home on bed rest until I went into labor on my own. I spent those last few days watching too much t.v., wondering when? Finally on that night, 13 years ago, after watching the movie, I headed to bed. At about 2 a.m. I was beginning to feel some moderate pain. I attempted to wake John...no such luck. So I tossed and turned. The pain was more intense, around 6:00 a.m. I took a hot bath. It didn't help. John finally woke up and realized I might actually be in real labor! At 8:00 a.m. we headed to the hospital. It was real! My water had broken, although not completely, I was dilated 3 cm and I was having regular contractions. My blood pressure was sky high, so our original labor plan was tossed out the window. I had to be sedated and given blood pressure meds that really knocked me out. I progressed rapidly enough to start pushing at 4:30 p.m. I am pretty sure John, my parents and my sister were there all day, but I slept most of it!! They were ready, I was tired! I pushed for 2 and half hours, falling asleep in between pushes! Finally after, forceps, vacuums and a full episiotomy...they took me in for an emergency c-section! At 7:35 p.m. our wonderful 8 pound 10 ounce baby boy Johnathan Bailey Boyen was born. Sadly, it wasn't as magical as I anticipated. They asked me if I wanted to hold my baby...I said "no...I want to puke!" My first picture with my son was him in my arms, next to the pink puke basin. But that was the beginning...the beginning of this wonderful journey through motherhood and family. I couldn't be prouder of the young man my Bailey has become. Intelligent, talented, charming and quite the smart alec! (wonder where that comes from!)

Never did I imagine time moving so rapidly...never did I imagine what that sweet baby boy would look like or be like at 13!

Happy 13th birthday Bailey! Thank you for making me a mother...

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The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Mother

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